Try this Fried Rice Recipe, or contribute your own.
The ingredient list notes boiled rice, but it omits the crucial detail that freshly cooked, hot grains hold too much surface moisture to fry properly. Spreading cooked rice across a baking sheet and chilling it in the refrigerator for at least two hours allows the starches to retrograde and the exterior moisture to evaporate. Without this dehydration step, the grains clump together and steam in the pan rather than searing.
Achieving the right texture demands a heavy skillet heated until it radiates visible heat before any oil goes in. Cold oil in a cold pan causes starches to stick and vegetables to release their internal water prematurely. Cooking aromatics like cumin, cloves, and cinnamon in hot oil extracts fat-soluble compounds quickly, infusing the cooking medium before the vegetables and rice are introduced.
Uniform chopping determines whether vegetables soften evenly or leave raw spots in the final dish. Dicing carrots, beans, and capsicum to a uniform quarter-inch size ensures that dense tissues soften within the brief window of high-heat tossing. Peas should be added thawed but unheated to preserve their skin tension and prevent a mushy collapse against the firmer grains.